Daytime Nightmares
by TheNumbersMan
Summary: A killer is loose in the cul-de-sac, who is it, and who will his next victim be? Disturbing, please be advised.
1. Chapter 1

**Not for those easily disturbed. This is your second warning. I do not own the Ed, Edd, and Eddie franchise. **

_Somewhere, a shadow screams in the night, "It's Halloween! Halloweeeeen!" Elsewhere, another scream sounded out, this one shriller, blood curdling. It ends abruptly. Cut off. A thud sounds as the screamer falls to the ground, clutching their gushing throat. A voice, sick and dark, "Happy Halloween..." A final word is lost to the night. A glob of spit hits the ground beside the cooling corpse. The body is not found until morning._

Ed and Eddie find Double Dee in front of his house; the lawn dyed a crust red from the dried blood. His parents nowhere; there are no parents. The corpse is gruesome, the smell is worse. Double Dee lay facing his door, his pants around his ankles, his underwear shredded, and his throat open from ear to ear. Eddie turns away after staring at his friend's lifeless body and vomits violently. Ed took a few staggering steps forward and came to a kneel beside the body. Tears steamed down his face as he looked at the lifeless face. "Double Dee!" His voice, usually calm in ignorant bliss, cracked as a sob broke through. He wasn't the smartest of the group, but he knew what he saw. His shoulders began to heave as he gathered up his friend to him. He cried and rocked the body, "Double Dee, Double Dee, Double Dee," he repeated to himself almost silently in between the racking sobs pushing out of his mouth. Eddie couldn't make himself turn around and look at his friends, one so brilliant and full of life, now snuffed out, and the other so happy, but now broken. So he stared listlessly into the sky, watching the clouds turn lazily over the cul-de-sac that they called home. He didn't move even as Ed stopped sobbing, didn't blink when he heard Sarah and Jimmy approach.

"Hey, whatcha doing?!" Sarah's young but masculine voice sounded out at the sight of the kneeling Ed. "Up to no good? Huh?" At the sound of her voice, Eddie turned a baleful glare upon her that froze her in her tracks. She'd never seen him so cold, so full of unbridled hatred. Why should she? Their home, their cul-de-sac had never seen the horror that the two friends had just witnessed. "Sarah… Shut up." Eddie's voice held a pain that drew blood away from her face. His eyes were bad, his voice was worse. "Ed, what's going on?" Sarah's brother just knelt there, facing the house. He saw nothing, he heard nothing, and he felt nothing. Ed was shattered; he'd lost one of his only friends. "Sarah, Jimmy, call the police." The voice of pain echoed to her. "Wh-why?"

"Double… Double Dee is dead. Someone… he's dead! Just listen for once in your damn life and call the police!" Eddie started slowly and ended in a ragged, angry yell. Silent tears ran down his face and onto his iconical yellow shirt, darkening it. His face seemed gaunt, as dead as his friends. In his head, he could hear his friend, Double Dee, talking to him as if from the dead. He was walking him through everything he needed to know, keeping him sane. _"Don't yell at her, she doesn't understand."_ The voice sounded in his ears. Eddie knew it couldn't be his friend. His friend was dead. But still, the voice was a comfort to him. "Just please, Sarah. Do it." Sarah was rooted to her spot, but when Jimmy ran towards the house to follow orders, she followed. On the door hung a glowing eyed skeleton that screamed as you approached and Jimmy pissed himself when it did. He was looking at Ed, holding Double Dee when it went off. With a screech, he sprinted away from the door, his pants soiled, his reserve breaking. It was all too much for him.

Sarah ventured in alone, finding the phone to the left of the door. When she picked it up and dialed 911, no tone answered her. The line was cut. Dropping the phone, she sprinted out of the house, straight by Eddie and Ed, and to her house to call the police. When she got there and tried, she found the phone dead. With an audible gulp, she took off crying towards Ed. He'd know what to do. As much as she heckled him, he was still her big brother. "Ed! The phones are dead!" She screamed and hugged onto his great green jacket. Ed looked at her, his eyes devoid of understanding or emotion, Double Dee still clasped tightly to his chest. "What? They can't be." Eddie said, shocked. There was no help. There was no one coming. _"My killer cut the phone line; you're cut off from the rest of the world. Be careful, Eddie. Even more trouble brews ahead for you." _

Eddie knew enough about psychological break downs after events of great stress, Double Dee spoke of them often enough, casually so, but even so, he didn't equate hearing the voice to it. Double Dee… His eyes turned cold again and he walked up on the crying Sarah, the dead Ed, and the deader Double Dee. "Ed, put double Dee down. Come with me, Sarah, you too. We have to warn everyone else."

Ed obeyed wordlessly, and stood up, Sarah still grasping tightly to his coat. So much so that he just lifted her off the ground. He didn't even blink, as if the weight wasn't there. "We'll take care of him later, first comes safety." _"Good call. Logical. You stand more of a chance if you work together." _

Elsewhere, Jimmy is snatched up from behind, a knife at his throat. A familiar voice whispers in his ear. "Come with me, now, and not a sound." Jimmy nodded, tears pouring down his face, his heart beating so loud you couldn't not hear it. The little boy in blue is dragged off behind Eddie's unoccupied house, leaving a trail dug into the unmown grass.


	2. Chapter 2

**Not for those easily disturbed. This is your third warning. I do not own the Ed, Edd, and Eddie franchise. **

_ Away from sight, a knife flashes down and up multiple times, opening holes in a shirt once blue but turning red quickly. A dented braces circlet rolls away and comes to rest on the grass. The dying boy turns his now one good eye on his killer, the other an empty bleeding socket, the eye plucked and severed. "It's mine now, Jimmy..." The voice was harsh as the eye was spirited away into a jar and into a pocket. The knife vanished up a sleeve after being cleaned on the boy's pants, which were discarded a dozen feet away... _

In the middle of the cul-de-sac, a half hour later, everyone met up. Well, everyone but Jimmy and Double Dee. Sarah was still clutching to Ed's back, so she didn't notice his disappearance. Kevin sounded out, "This better not be some trick, dork. What are you trying to sell us this time? More gold goodies?" Eddie turned his eyes on the red head. "Kevin, shut up. We have a problem… Someone killed Double Dee." All eyes snapped the shortest boy there. "You're joking, right, Eddie?" Naz asked from the back. "No, I'm not. He's lying in his yard, over there." Eddie's hand went up to point and everyone followed it to Double Dee's prone form. Sarah sobbed loudly when Ed turned to look. He kept muttering under his breath, "Double Dee, Double Dee." Over and over again, so soft it couldn't even be called a whisper.

Double Dee did whisper in Eddie's ear, _"Someone's missing. But who? Little boy blue, that's who." _Eddie snapped to attention and glanced around. The voice was right. Jimmy wasn't there. "Sarah," his voice casual, non-panicked, "where is Jimmy?" The little red head stopped and looked around. "I-I don't know. I haven't s-seen him since he took off from Double-" Her sentence was interrupted by sniffles, and then she broke off into hysterical crying as she tried to say his name. She let go of her brother's jacket, and fell the foot to the ground. Ed didn't even shift when she left. Sarah ran around through the crowd, hunting him, shoving people out of the way violently, until finally Johnny stepped up and grabbed her. "Stop. He isn't here." His voice was casual, his friend Plank tucked tightly under one arm. "Then where is he?!" She screamed at him and took off in a blind panic towards Jimmy's house. Maybe she thought, he was hiding in his room.

When she returned, she came back alone. No Jimmy, but now she carried a butcher knife. "I can't find him, but I grabbed something. I mean, what if the killer is still around here?" Everyone froze at the thing that they'd all been thinking but no one voiced. Then, they all took off towards random houses. Eddie and Kevin ran toward Eddie's house, Ed took off toward Naz's, Naz went to Kevin's and Johnny went to his. When everyone came back together except for Kevin and Eddie, they went dashed to Eddie's in a mad sprint. What they came on startled them. Kevin was holding Eddie to the wall with a knife and Eddie was staring desolately out the window to his back yard. Finally, Naz spoke up. "Kevin, let him go! Why are you holding him there?" Kevin didn't respond, but just nodded to the window. Naz, the unelected leader walked up behind him and looked out the window. She blanched and stumbled away.

"Eddie…" Her voice shook, going from normal to high and back down as she continued, "Jimmy is dead in your back yard. H-how could you do this?" Eddie looked at her right in the eye. His were empty save for a flicker of emotion and hers were full of barely restrained fear and outrage. "I didn't. Kevin and I discovered him there, and he took it the same you did. That's why I'm here." _"Speak calmly, try reasoning with her." _"I can prove I didn't do it. I was with Sarah and Ed ever since we discovered Double Dee." _"Good, good." _Kevin looked at him curiously, then slowly let go of him. "Sorry, dork, but I panicked. I saw the kid, and he was behind your house, and it all made sense."

It was noon by the time everyone was armed and standing again in the middle of town. The Saturday sun sat high in the sky, and a chill autumn wind made them shiver. Fall is a time of dying, but Winter is one of decay. "Okay everyone, we can only trust each other. That's all we have. So, no one goes solo." Naz was speaking to everyone, because nobody trusted Eddie. "I'll split you up into groups of two, okay?" She pointed at Johnny and Eddie. Johnny nodded complacently and Eddie walked over casually, his long vegetable cutting knife held tightly in his hands. Johnny looked at him and hefted his baseball bat, repositioning Plank just in case. Her finger pointed at Ed and Sarah next. Ed just stared at her and Sarah walked over and latched onto his arm. She then pointed to Kevin and herself. "Stick with your partner, if we're careful, he won't be able to catch us unawares."

The groups split off, with Johnny taking Eddie to his house, Naz and Kevin going to her house, and Ed and Sarah going home. The day passed slowly for Johnny and Eddie as Johnny eyed him warily and Eddie strode cautiously, watching his every action so as to not cause incident. Their night passed easily. Sarah moved down to Ed's room and set up in his bed for the entire rest of the day and the night, not moving except to glance around at the door, then to the windows, and then back again. Ed stood stock still against the wall, a hatchet hanging loosely from his fingers. Kevin and Naz stayed up until midnight, at which pointed all the lights in her house blew, leaving them in the dark. She froze and dived for her weapon, which she'd left on the table beside the couch. She heard Kevin whoop and then a fall of something heavy, namely a teenage boy, and then things went even darker for her.

The next day, when everyone met up, the noticed their group had decreased by two, and when they went to investigate, they saw the door open. Blood was everywhere, but there were no bodies to be found. Kevin and Naz were gone, vanished without a trace except for the open door and the bloodied carpet. Johnny spoke up first, "We need to look in the house. Maybe Naz or Kevin are inside hiding." Eddie nodded and stepped forward. Flicking the light switch, the ceiling fan went to work and the light came on. The living room looked even worse in the light than it did in the menacing dark. Their search turned up nothing. No weapon, no bodies, and no more blood found. Other than Naz's knife, which lay on the ground in front of the couch, grabbed in haste and dropped when she went down.


End file.
